Young mathematicians practice their reasoning as well as adding and subtracting skills with this worksheet that includes five simple word problems about birthdays. Learners are give pictures of birthday cakes and based on the number of...

Teach your readers to be critical thinkers. A strategy is outlined that can be used to compare and contrast entities. An example lists four states. The learner removes one state that "does not belong" in the list for some reason, and...

Shapes are so fun! Little ones explore, identify, and create shapes using tangrams or pattern blocks. The activity is intended to stimulate critical thinking while engaging learners through play and shape identification. Each child will...

What is and what will be the role of newspapers in the future? Keeping this essential question in mind, class members use print, electronic, and/or web editions of newspapers, to investigate topics that include financial...

Turn your 6th graders into detectives while growing their love of reading. Using critical thinking skills, they will be able to describe the five basic elements of detective fiction, read detective novels, make predictions, use the...

This is a twist on the old "guess how many jellybeans" game. Using estimation and math skills, learners participate in a fun "mystery jars" activity, trying to make educated guesses at how many objects are in two jars. The basic activity...

The lesson starts out with a brain drain, which is a great way to get students to activate prior knowledge and build lasting connections. They tell everything they know about prime factorization, use their knowledge to...

Help your class discover the commutative property of addition with this exploration of the addition table. By folding and coloring the table, a symmetry is found that directs students to an understanding of this crucial mathematical...

Twenty-one pieces of tagboard can lead your class to a greater understanding of integers when you use them to form a human number line. After creating this math tool, two strategies for adding and subtracting will have your...

Upper elementary and middles schoolers discuss and solve real world applications of math. They use formulas for volume and percents to answer real world questions. In the second part of the lesson, groups write and solve word problems....

How do you put something as large as the universe in perspective? Use a series of scale experiments. Classmates collaborate around four experiments to examine the scale of the earth-moon system, our solar system, the Milky Way galaxy,...

If you keep rolling a die, you'll roll a five exactly one-sixth of the time—right? A probability lesson prompts young mathematicians to roll a die 100 times and use the data to calculate empirical probabilities. They then compare...

Set the Thanksgiving Day holiday table with a learning game that challenges participants to think critically about family members' likes and dislikes. Players scroll over a character to reveal what the requirements are for their...

Students explore critical thinking strategies. In this critical thinking lesson, students evaluate multiple choice answers. Students note similarities between incorrect answers and discover how to compare and contrast incorrect and...

Learners discover the game of chess. In this critical thinking lesson, students learn the rules for each chess piece and the game as a whole. Learners use critical thinking, problem solving, logic, and reasoning skills to improve their...

If you think Dr. Seuss has no place in a math classroom, then take a look at this resource. Based on the classic children's book Green Eggs and Ham, this sequence of activities engages children learning to model real-world contexts...

Trigonometry, art, and Valentine's Day come together in a creative activity about parametric equations. Learners calculate several equations before graphing them either by hand, on a graphic calculator, or Excel spreadsheet to curve...

The class examines the new tax cut plan proposed by President Bush. They practice calculating income tax rates and interpreting the data. Then they research topics that are of interest to them related to taxes.

Students practice problem solving skills. In this early childhood education lesson, students foster the ability to use creative and critical thinking to turn obstacles into bridges to greater learning as they complete various activities...

Skittles and math? Pupils will work as a class to determine how many orange Skittles are in a large bag by using proportions. They will problem solve, estimate, and share their thinking. Then, they will each receive a small bag of...

Lesson 16 in the series of 28 is a mid-module assessment. Learners simplify expressions, write and solve equations, and write and solve inequalities. Most questions begin as word problems adding a critical thinking component to the...

Keep the skills of your young mathematicians up-to-date with this series of newsletter worksheets. Offering a wide array of basic arithmetic, geometry, and problem solving exercises, this resource is a great way to develop the...

As a critical-thinking activity, this series of problems would be a great supplemental activity to use after a unit on fractions. The solutions require a good deal of thought and allow learners to tap into their problem solving abilities.

Wow! Here is a 14-page package of activities to use when your math class is studying probability. There are a myriad of pertinent experiments for learners to try, such as rolling a self-constructed multi-faced three-dimensional...